Conference Structure:
- The conference will include:
- Plenary papers by invited speakers on a specific topic related to the conference and forum.
- Contributed papers that have been approved by the Scientific Committee.
- Posters of selected papers.
- Plenary meeting for finalizing action plan.
- Field visit to Sulaibiya Research Station and revegetation sites in Burgan, gravel quarry sites in Al-leyah, Sabah Al-Ahmad Nature Reserve and Waterfront.
Conference Themes:
- Current status of climate change, agriculture and biodiversity monitoring in Kuwait and Arab countries: case studies and comparative research.
- Impacts of global, regional and local climate change including land-use changes, land degradation, periodic drought and desertification on agriculture and biodiversity.
- Adaptation and sustainability options, interactions and synergies among global climate change, agriculture and desert biodiversity.
- Future research collaborations and establishment of a regional network on climate change and biodiversity conservation.
- The impact of the global financial crisis on the economy and the ecology of West Asia.
- Conflicts and Environment.
Conference Program
Click here to download the conference program in pdf format
Click here to download the keynote speakers in pdf format
Conference Field Trips
1-Agriculture Research Station
The Agriculture Research station at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research was established in 1975. The research station covers a total area of 40 km2, 4 km (east to west) x 10 km (north to south). The station includes an artisan well of medium salinity well with a one-million-gallon reservoir (3000-4000 ppm total dissolved solids), in addition to a livestock research farm, a poultry research farm, the desert animal center, greenhouses, stores, laborer housing and offices.
The main objective of the station is to conduct ecology studies on the flora and fauna of Kuwait, and the optimization of animal grazing activities. It is also intended to make possible the conducting of research activities and studies related to animal production, plant production, rangeland and ecology.
During the last 31 years, several research projects and activities have been completed at the station. These projects have been in the areas of range management, irrigated pasture production, desert animal management and breeding, rehabilitation of degraded lands, sheep production and poultry production. As a result, valuable technical and scientific information on agriculture and wildlife has been obtained that has had a great positive effect on KISR's image on both regional and international levels.
Through the station, KISR has succeeded in conserving and protecting several plants such as; Rhanterium, Helianthemum, Iris, Stipa, Cyperus, Plantago, and Panicum and some desert animals such as the red fox, desert monitor (waral), cream-coloured courser, long-eared hedgehog, jerboa, dhub, sand boa and viper.
2-Urban Demonstration Gardens, Salmiya
The Urban Demonstration Garden (UDG) at the Aridland Agriculture and Greenery Department (AAGD) of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) was formerly named the Waterfront Site. The site is located in the Hawally Governate, on the waterfront in Salmiya (Shaab Al-Bahri), 10 km away from Kuwait City, and covers a total area of 5.2 ha (0.052 km2). The UDG site was established in 1984, in collaboration with the Kuwait Municipality. During the last two decades, several research projects and activities have been completed at the site. These studies have focused on testing, selecting, monitoring and enriching the plant palette for greenery projects in Kuwait, and maintenance of exotic ornamental plants under the harsh environmental conditions. Over the years, the AAGD has succeeded in identifying the most suitable ornamental trees, shrubs, ground cover and native plants, as well as conserving and protecting some of the native plants that existed at the site. In addition, the AAGD has succeeded in introducing and propagating water plants in Kuwait. Therefore, a wealth of technical information has been collected related to ornamental plants, which will be beneficial to Kuwaiti agricultural companies. Hence, a master plan for the UDG, was prepared to demonstrate several types of garden concepts, in addition to educating and creating public awareness regarding sustainable greenery development practices and recycling technologies for garden waste.
3- Mariculture and Fisheries DepartmentMariculture and Fisheries Department in KISR is the largest research station in the region for marine species. The majority of research is directed towards developing culture techniques for high value marine fish and shrimp species. The Department has good laboratory facilities for fish pathology, fish nutrition, and water quality analysis. The Department has pilot-scale production facilities for cages (sheltered and open sea type), fish tanks, tidal fish ponds, and a marine fry hatchery with livefood production.
4- Wafra Agricultural Farms
A large area in Wafra was developed for sustainable crop production both in open fields and under greenhouses system. The Wafra area is located in south of Kuwait near the southern border with Saudi Arabia. With the challenge of the harsh and extreme climatic conditions facing the agricultural production in Kuwait, the majority of productive farms in wafra are attempting to provide higher yield and better quality crops. Several types of crops are being cultivated in Wafra, includes: fruits and leafy vegetables, tubers, and onions, beans as well as agronomic and forage crop.
Young Scientist’s Workshop
“Sustainable Agriculture and Biodiversity in Kuwait”
30th Nov 2010 – 2nd Dec 2010
In order to encourage the participation of young professionals and university/school students, it is proposed to organize parallel sessions on various themes of the conference. University/school students, and young scientists are encouraged to submit a one page abstract of their presentation (both oral and poster) which will be evaluated by a special committee. While submitting the abstract, please mention that the abstract is for the “Young Scientists’ workshop”.
Introduction
Sustainability has become a wide ranging term that can be used in every aspect of life. Natural ecosystem has declined and changes in the balance of the natural cycle had a negative impact on both humans and other living beings. Therefore; KISR has formulated a workshop for Young scientists, “Sustainable Agriculture and Biodiversity in Kuwait” to educate the younger generation in ways of living more sustainably. It will also adjust individual lifestyles that will allow them to conserve natural resources. This workshop will be held from November 30-December2, 2010 addressing young scientists from universities in Kuwait, both private and public. Students and young scientists are encouraged to submit an abstract of their presentation to be evaluated by specialized committee members.
Workshop structures
The conference will include:
1- Plenary papers by invited speakers on a specific topic related to the themes of the workshop.
2- Contributed papers that have been approved by the specialized committee
3- Posters of selected papers
4- The workshop exhibition
5- Field visit
6- Final recommendations meeting
Workshop Objectives
1. To Create awareness among young scientists and University students about sustainable agriculture climate change and biodiversity conservation.
2. Bring together young scientists to exchange ideas and share their experience in sustainable agriculture and biodiversity conservation, prepare mitigation activities for Kuwait and Arab countries.
3. Establish a framework for future collaborative activities on climate change, biodiversity and sustainable agricultural development in Kuwait and nearby regions.
4. Train young scientists to develop papers on the different themes of the workshop.
Workshop Duration
The workshop will be three days starting from November 30, to December 2, 2010.
Workshop Themes
1. Climate change
2. Sustainable Agriculture
3. Biodiversity& Agriculture
4. Biodiversity and Conservation
Workshop activities
1. Oral Presentation
2. Poster
3. Exhibition
4. Website
Please submit papers according to these guidlines:
1. Membership in the National Association of Environmental Professionals is not a requirement for publication in Environmental Practice.
2. Only electronic submittals will be accepted. Authors should either send via email their work to the managing editor listed at the end of these instructions. Please indicate in your electronic submittal which section the work should be considered under: Research Articles, Environmental Reviews and Case Studies, Reviews, Perspectives from the Field, or Dialogue. Also, in email, please put in the subject line, Environmental Practice Submittal. All manuscripts will be accepted in Word or Excel software.
3. Manuscripts should be organized as follows:
- Cover sheet: Attach a cover sheet including manuscript title, author name(s); title or position; institutional affiliation; corresponding author address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address. All pages should be numbered, with the cover sheet as page 1. To facilitate blind peer reviews, author names and affiliations should appear only on the cover sheet.
- Acknowledgements: Place on a separate sheet, located after the cover sheet. The study sponsors, if any, should be included in the acknowledgements.
- Abstract: Research Articles, Environmental Reviews and case Studies should be accompanied by an abstract of no more than 225 words on a separate sheet. Abstracts should be stand-alone summary of the manuscript’s central findings and arguments, not an overview of the manuscript’s outline. The title of the manuscript should appear at the top of the abstract page.
- Text: Research Articles and Environmental Reviews and Case Studies will typically have separate sections for Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions. In all cases, use appropriate section headings to help guide the reader.
All text, including references, tables, legends, and quotations, should be typed, double-spaced, on one side of white paper with margins of at least one inch on all sides without right-hand justification.
- Documentation and references: Authors may use either author-date notation or endnotes.
4. Authors are strongly encouraged to illustrate their work with tables, figures, maps and photographs. Authors should submit any figures in electronic form, preferably TIF (line drawings should be at least 600 ppi; halftone or gray-scale-figures should be at least 300 ppi) or EPS (with fonts embedded) format. Color figures must be at least 300 ppi CMYK, although authors will be charged for the production cost of printing any four-color figures (a color figure costs $1000; additional color figures in the same article will cost somewhat less). Provide figure captions together on a separate page. Tables (in Word or excel that the editorial office will be able to manipulate for formatting purposes) should not duplicate data also provided in figures or in the text. For tables of data that might be of value only to a few readers, authors should consider indicating that the data is available on request from the author. Table and figure captions/legends should make them understandable without reference to the test. Tables and figures must be referred to in the text.
5. This journal resists the use of acronyms and other forms of abbreviation. As a general rule, an acronym is appropriate only (a) if it is used frequently in a portion or all of a manuscript or (b) if the acronym itself has entered common usage in everyday conversation (e.g., “USEPA” for “United States Environmental Protection Agency”). The use of more than two different acronyms in one manuscript is unlikely to be acceptable.
6. Use the International System of Units (SI) or metric units. If necessary for clarity or common usage, other units may be included in parentheses immediately following the acceptable units.
7. Environmental Practice uses a double-blind peer review process. The reviewer will not know the identity or location of the author(s), and the author(s) will receive reviewer’s comments without the reviewer’s identity or location. Authors are invited to submit names of appropriate reviewers, but the final choice of reviewers lies with the editor. Authors will be notified of the disposition of their manuscript as soon as possible. The goal of this journal is to have a decision to the author(s) within 90 days of receipt of manuscript.
8. Upon acceptance of manuscripts, authors will be requested to send the editorial office an electronic version of the manuscript. Please contact the editorial office for exceptions; an author’s access to computing equipment will not be a factor in the publication of a manuscript.
9. The final version of the manuscript should include a short biographical sketch of each author (150 words or less per author).
10. All authors must sign the “Transfer of Copyright Agreement” and a disclosure of commercial interests before the manuscript can be published. The Transfer Agreement enables the National Association of Environmental Professionals to protect the copyrighted material for the authors, but authors do not thereby relinquish proprietary rights or rights to use their work in the future. The copyright transfer covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the manuscript, including reprints, photographic reproduction, microfilm, electronic versions, and all other reproduction methods, plus translations into languages other than English.
11. The corresponding author will receive page proofs for final proofreading shortly before the article is scheduled for publication. Authors bear full responsibility for accuracy and completeness of their material. Any corrections (not revisions) should be made at this time, and the page proofs must be returned to the publisher within 48 hours of receipt. Extensive revisions are strongly discouraged at this stage of the publication process and, if permitted by the editor and publisher, are likely to result in special charges to the author.
12. It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to this journal have not been published previously, in part or in whole, in a print or electronic publication. All prior presentations of the manuscript material must be disclosed to the editor at the time of initial manuscript submission. It is also a condition of publication that the author(s) will not simultaneously submit or publish the material elsewhere.
13. Authors will receive a reprint order form when they are page proofs. A PDF of the article will be provided free of charge to the lead author. If additional reprints are desired, the completed form along with payment must be returned to the publisher at the same time page proofs are returned.
Workshop Committee Members:-
- Ms. Laila Al-Mulla, Chairperson
- Ms. Sara Al-Dossary, Co-Chairperson
- Mr. Adnan Al-Alawi, Reporter
- Ms. Mariam Al-Bahouh, Member
- Ms. Tahani Al-Mutairi, Member
- Ms. Faten Khalil, Member
- Ms. Sarah Al-Jutaili, Member
- Ms. Ohoud Al-Ragam, Member
- Mr. Adnan Al-Alawi, Member
- Ms. Tahani Al-Mutairi, Member
CLIMATE CHANGE YOUTH CONFERENCE
The Climate Change Youth Conference aims to providing young people with a fun and interactive forum to learn more about climate change, its causes, affects and what can be done to tackle it. The conference will be hosted jointly by Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research and the British Council’s International Climate Champions and will be aimed at a young audience. The conference will have presentations, workshops and competitions that will all help the participants to understand Climate Change issues and encourage them to develop ideas.